New Orleans – August 13, 2009 – Today, Council Vice President Jackie Clarkson responded to recent news regarding the master plan process with a letter to the editor in the Times Picayune. The letter can be read in the August 13, 2009 edition of the Picayune. It is printed below.
“It’s true. The city’s master planning process has not proceeded as fast as was expected. But this is no cause for naysaying and fear. The delay has been caused by a tremendous amount of resident participation in the planning process. New Orleanians have turned out to planning meetings in unprecedented numbers. Meanwhile, the city’s planners have worked to incorporate the people’s vision with the best components of New Orleans’ past plans and the best planning practices in the country.
“This resident participation — whether it has slowed the timeline or not — is good news, not bad.
“It’s also exactly what we intended when we as a city went to the polls last November and voted to change the city’s charter to mandate a master plan with the force of law, a master plan that would finally have “teeth.” We wanted to write the “people’s plan, ” a plan that elected and appointed officials would finally have to listen to and abide.
Few realize what a significant step forward this change was for New Orleans. A city notorious for its dysfunctional, politicized planning process will now have rules — rules that will give us a predictable, stable system of land use and protect quality of life in neighborhoods, procure and retain small businesses and attract major investment capital to our city.
“Major shifts in entrenched city processes take time. Yes, we need to work diligently to keep the master plan on track. As the author of the charter change and as an at-large council member, I pledge to do all I can to ensure our city finally gets the plan we so desperately need, even if the timeline is little off.”
Jacquelyn Brechtel Clarkson
Vice President
New Orleans City Council
